Hurricane Hermine has left the Tallahassee area, and response crews are working to get things back to normal. But the impact on local utilities has been massive.
Although just a category one storm when it made landfall, Hermine has caused significant damage in Florida’s capital city and outlying areas. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum says it could’ve been worse, but there’s a lot of cleaning up to do.
“In fact in the city’s history this may have been the most significant hit to electric utility system with over eighty percent of our system having been affected by last night’s storm,” he said Friday morning.
Weems Rd. flooded. Driver passing by warns "just be careful there's gators" pic.twitter.com/ccdKMDL6Db
— Nick Evans (@nckevns) September 2, 2016
Workers are scrambling to get systems back online, but Gillum warns it could take days. More than a dozen crews have been dispatched to clear fallen trees.
“Typically our electric utility system can be pretty quick and efficient in getting our system up and going,” the mayor explained, “[but] we want to warn this may take a few days for various members of our community.”
As of Friday afternoon, more than 60,000 residents still don’t have power. The situation is even worse in Wakulla County—at one point 99 percent of residents had lost power.
